Some fears are capable of causing you to belittle yourself or to misinterpret danger; not all fear is realistic or beneficial. At the same time, confusing unrealistic fears with intuition can cause a dogged determination to make yourself believe that something negative is about to pass in your life. Doing so is to confuse both fear and intuition and this can lead you to make choices and decisions that restrict rather than broaden your life. A fulfilling life is one of balance and equality, your fears and intuition will serve you well when balanced too.

Ad

Steps

1

Consider the properties of fear. Fears can be real; for instance, when facing an impending dog attack, or seeing a car hurtling towards our own as we're driving, or when we're about to skydive from an airplane. In these cases, taking evasive or careful action based on our fear of what is about to happen is both real and sensible and are what we can term a "protective" fear; these are healthy and normal fears. On the other hand, fears can also be unrealistic and unhealthy; the acronym for which is "False Evidence, Appearing Real", such as when we imagine things that might happen if certain circumstances were to come to be, no matter how wild our preoccupations or how stretched the possibilities. In this case, it's about letting anxiety, worry, and catastrophization take the place of clear-headed thinking and evidence. When comparing intuition and fears, the first sense of real fear is not what this article is concerned with. Rather, the focus is on imagined fears, the supposition that something bad is about to happen for reasons that are barely fathomable.

Ad

2

Reflect on what you understand by intuition. It's not easily defined; however, it is possible to reach your own understanding of intuition as an inner guidance, a "knowing", or an internal compass. In contrast to fear, intuition has positive connotations in that it helps us make our way through life by drawing upon experience that may be buried deep in our consciousness. Such terms as "gut feeling", "instinct", "hunch", and "just a feeling" are often used to describe the way our intuition influences our actions and decisions. However, it is very important to realize that intuition is more than just responding at an instinctual level; it is instinct plus cognitive consideration. There is no right or wrong answer as to how you define intuition; the best approach is to simply sit down and write a flow of what it means to you.

3

Understand what happens when you mistake fear for intuition. Fear is a negative emotion that expresses itself through physical reactions (such as fight or flight, sweating, feeling an adrenaline rush, etc.). Intuition is a positive set of feelings or guidance that if heeded, can bring about better situations for us. Fear is an emotion that causes us to want to run away, hide, and not face the oncoming negative happening, whereas intuition is about heeding the possible dangers but having the strength, resilience, and wherewithal to focus our actions and attitude so as to face and deal with the negative occurrence. As such, when you mistake fear for intuition, you are effectively telling yourself that something bad is about to occur but that you are powerless to do anything constructive about it other than worry, fret, or pray, thereby disabling your intuition and your ability to push past the fear. This is an attempt to either sideline intuition or to change its positive effect into a negative one.

Another problem with confusing fear and intuition is that instead of living in the present (as intuition does), you are living in a worst possible future (where irrational fear resides). If you're not focusing on the present, then you're not being intuitive.

4

Take stock of what makes you afraid. As with reflecting on what you understand to mean by intuition, writing down your fears can help you begin to take better notice of them as fears and not as intuitive insights. Simply make time to sit down with a notepad and pen and write down the fears that are currently looming large in your life. They may be such things as: fear of losing a job, fear of losing someone you love, fear of injury, fear for your children's safety, fear of aging, fear for the future, etc. Write down all the fears that occur to you. Some of your fears will be rational, such as a fear of losing your job if your boss said that there will be lay-offs next week. Other fears will be irrational, such as fearing that a bridge will collapse on you if you drive under it, just because you read of such an incident happening somewhere else.

Be skeptical of long-standing fears, like fear of heights, insects, strangers, etc. These fears are phobias born of a particular experience and are very narrow moments in the past directing your thoughts, not your intuition. While these phobias are initially based in "protective" fears, they can often end up over-protecting you to the point of preventing growth, freedom, and happiness.

Premonitions of something happening in the future tend to be neutral when sourced from the intuition. They cannot be forced and whether they have a good or bad outcome is not colored by your own inner thinking. Not everyone experiences premonitions and in fact, those who block the ability through a cynical attitude towards them, generally have very little chance of doing so. However, premonitions differ from fear in that they are not based in your subjective, conscious or unconscious preferences or concerns.

5

Learn to spot the difference between irrational fears and legitimate intuitions. Throughout this article you've been given indicators on how to do this. For example, are you concerned with the present or are you worrying about the future? Are you catastrophizing or philosophizing? Here are some key elements of the differences between experiencing intuition versus an irrational fear:

An irrational fear diminishes being centered and having sound perspective.

6

Take appropriate steps to heed protective fears and transform irrational fears with courage. At times you may foresee real danger, but more frequently, unproductive fears are misinforming you. Therefore, as a general rule, train yourself to question fears tied to low self-esteem; we’re all worthy of the extraordinary. For example, it’s right to question the fear that you’re too emotionally damaged to love; even the severely wounded can open up their hearts again but they need to make the choice to be open and to decide not to continue being over-protective of themselves. True intuitions will never put you down or support destructive attitudes and behavior; of all the signs, this is the most telling.

Ad

We could really use your help!

Can you tell us aboutdogs?

Yes

No

dogs

how to build an indoor dog kennel

Can you tell us aboutmousetrap cars?

Yes

No

mousetrap cars

how to build a mousetrap car

Can you tell us aboutsugar rockets?

Yes

No

sugar rockets

how to make sugar rockets

Can you tell us aboutFacebook applications?

Yes

No

Facebook applications

how to create a Facebook application

Thanks for helping! Please tell us everything you know about

...

Tell us everything you know here. Remember, more detail is better.

Tips

Provide Details.

Please be as detailed as possible in your explanation. Don't worry about formatting! We'll take care of it.
For example:Don't say: Eat more fats.Do say: Add fats with some nutritional value to the foods you already eat. Try olive oil, butter, avocado, and mayonnaise.

Video

How To Tap Into Your Intuition

Tips

If you’re an emotional empath, highly sensitive, an emotionally deep person, or even co-dependent, it can be especially tricky to ascertain which fears are authentic, helpful intuitions and which are irrational. Because you tend to absorb other people’s emotions, you may pick up their fear and think or assume that their fears are your own. To avoid this:

Always ask yourself, “Is the fear mine or someone else’s?” One dependable way to find out is to distance yourself from the source. Physically move at least twenty feet away. If you experience relief, it’s likely you’re perceiving another’s fear. Although it’s fine to absorb courage and all positive emotions from others because they’ll strengthen you, you don’t want to absorb their negativity. Move away, and keep releasing extraneous fear by exhaling it until the feeling passes.

Don't be so trusting about information or emotions when they touch on something that really concerns you or triggers your buttons. For example, as a mom, your children's welfare is a hot spot trigger while as a business owner, your staff's honesty is a hot spot trigger. In these cases, rely on being skeptical about information that triggers your fears and use critical thinking to sort through your fears, emotions, and intuitions and not just leave your irrational fears to win through. Take a gradual, scientific approach to the issue instead of assuming a knee-jerk reaction.

Help others to discern the difference between their protective fears, irrational fears, and intuition. For people who are stuck deep in irrational fears, it can be a long journey to release themselves from the mire and perhaps you could be the helping hand they need, especially if you've had to work this out for yourself and can spot the pitfalls.

Warnings

Stress and anxiety can prevent you from taking time out. Without taking time out, you will find it hard to rediscover your sense of self or your "essence". And this is when fears can dominate and take over because you're trying to protect yourself from being worn out, burned out, and used up. Make the time to rejuvenate so that you can let go of fears, listen to your intuition properly, and make amazing personal discoveries that won't surface without taking time to relax and regroup.

Share

Featured Articles

Meet a Community Member

Meet Adelaide, a wikiHowian who has been a community member for over two years and has written 173 articles. She enjoys being a Welcomer and New Article Booster, and she helps a lot of people through the Help Team. She also enjoys copyediting articles and has boosted over 6,300 articles. Her proudest accomplishment on wikiHow was having a topic she started, How to Create Your Own Map with MapBox.com, become a Featured Article. When it comes to the wikiHow community, Adelaide loves the collaborative spirit and says it’s nice to see so many like-minded editors sharing advice and helping the content grow. To new contributors, she advises, “Edit fearlessly and boldly, and don’t be afraid to ask questions!”